Orthodontic treatment is usually recommended for patients having teeth that are improperly positioned. In conventional orthodontic treatment, teeth move through the use of braces which are generally formed by bracket assemblies and an archwire. An orthodontist affixes each bracket assembly to the patient's teeth and engages the archwire through the slot of each bracket in order to apply force to the teeth toward their desired positions with the adjustment of the archwire in the course of the treatment.
Attempts have been made to provide a controlled force on each tooth as can be seen in PCT patent application PCT/US2007/067259 which shows an orthodontic brace comprising a set of brackets, including lateral anterior brackets, a cuspid bracket and a first bicuspid bracket, each bracket having a slot for receiving an archwire which provides help to move patient's teeth to an optimal position.
However, orthodontic treatments using braces have shown a number of drawbacks related with uncomfortable feelings of patients, increase of mouth illnesses and aesthetic problems. Patients under orthodontic treatments may develop particular gestures due to the unpleasant feeling of the brackets in the mouth due to the fact that the brackets extend outwardly and the patients are not used to these appliances on their teeth.
In addition, these brackets may cause blisters in the oral cavity and could increase dental plaque, which could lead to dental cavities or periodontal problems such as gingivitis.
In addition, patients also report various aesthetic problems since braces usually are visible and therefore, these orthodontic treatments dramatically change the appearance of a patient.
To improve the cosmetic appearance of the brackets, ceramic injection molded brackets have been developed as shown in U.S. Patent 2010/173256 by Ormco Corporation. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 7,252,506 issued to 3M Innovative Properties Company has also offered a solution to the aesthetic problems of the braces by means of using an arch member made of a stain-resistant transparent or translucent polymer having aesthetic characteristics in the orthodontic treatment.
In order to reduce the volume of the braces in the mouth and to decrease the aesthetic problems derived from the use of brackets, alternative orthodontic systems have been developed as shown in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/548,407 and 13/035,871 by Ariza, Joaquin. These inventions relate to an orthodontic system for teeth alignment without brackets and they describe an orthodontic system using a tube, instead of brackets, and a resin that goes over the tube and affixes the tube to a patient's tooth hereby constructing a point to apply force through an archwire.
In addition, tubes (1) like the one depicted in FIG. 2 of the present invention have been used in orthodontic systems to align teeth (3) in conjunction with a wire (4) that goes through the tubes (1).
However, in spite of the efforts mentioned in the field of orthodontics, there is still a need for obtaining an improved orthodontics tube with an enhanced external shape that better adapts to the teeth's geometry in order to obtain larger adherence area and consequently, to reposition the teeth more efficiently.
In view of the aforementioned, it would be desirable to develop methods for providing orthodontic treatments having no side effects for the patients.
The present invention provides an orthodontics tube to be used in orthodontic treatments wherein the reported drawbacks of the current orthodontic methods are overcome.